Alan Turing's 1950s tiger stripe theory proved

[n2doc]

Researchers from King's College London have provided the first experimental evidence confirming a great British mathematician's theory of how biological patterns such as tiger stripes or leopard spots are formed.

The study, funded by the Medical Research Council and to be published online in Nature Genetics, not only demonstrates a mechanism which is likely to be widely relevant in vertebrate development, but also provides confidence that chemicals called morphogens, which control these patterns, can be used in regenerative medicine to differentiate stem cells into tissue.

The findings provide evidence to support a theory first suggested in the 1950s by famous code-breaker and mathematician Alan Turing, whose centenary falls this year. He put forward the idea that regular repeating patterns in biological systems are generated by a pair of morphogens that work together as an 'activator' and 'inhibitor'.

To test the theory the researchers studied the development of the regularly spaced ridges found in the roof of the mouth in mice. Carrying out experiments in mouse embryos, the team identified the pair of morphogens working together to influence where each ridge will be formed. These chemicals controlled each other's expression, activating and inhibiting production and therefore controlling the generation of the ridge pattern.

more

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-alan-turing-1950s-tiger-stripe.html

[xchrom]

1. very cool. congrats mr turing. nt

[dipsydoodle]

2. He's the guy who broke the Enigma code in WW2

.

[Cherchez la Femme]

5. Also outed & prosecuted as a homosexual

was made to 'accept' chemical castration,
and committed suicide at age 41.
One of the finest minds of the century & he got a fine Thank You! in return

[dipsydoodle]

6. Was illegal here in those days

Castration by treatment with female hormones was offered to him as an alternative to prison. Would've been reversible anyway not that that justifies it

Aside from the film Enigma which didn't portray him in that way we've also had two tv documentaries. Breaking the Code 2008 was written with Derek Jacobi in mind. There some clips of that on youtube. The second was on CH4 last November - maybe the US will buy that one.

[whathehell]

10. Saw "Breaking the Code" as both a play and a film in the US. n/t

[grahamhgreen]

12. No wonder he was working on tiger stripes and leopard prints!

But what a horror....

[rurallib]

3. Sent the article to my biology teacher daughter

Thanks much.
Turing was an absolutely incredible human being. So sad his life was cut short.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

4. That's a mild way of putting it.

"Cut short" = "committed suicide rather than face continuing professional and social stigma, and mandatory chemical castration, for the 'crime' of being gay in 1950s Great Britain."

[dipsydoodle]

7. It was a prison sentence which was mandatory

The alternative was offered to him as an option.

Yes - was illegal then but by the same token we never had any Jim Crow laws.

[AlbertCat]

11. by the same token we never had any Jim Crow laws.

Just Boody Mary.

[Skittles]

8. Turing was AWESOME

[Solly Mack]

9. K&R